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variable command

Syntax:

variable ID str1 str2 ... 

Examples:

variable files f1.txt f2.txt f3.txt
variable N 100 

Description:

Variable is a command that can be used in a PHISH input script which is recognized by the bait.py setup program. It creates a variable with name ID which contains a list of one or more strings. The variable can be used elsewhere in the input script. The substitution rules for variables are described by the bait.py doc page.

The ID of the variable can only contain alphanumeric characters and underscores. The strings can contain any printable character.

A variable can only be defined once, i.e. IDs must be unique. The one exception is for variables defined as command-line arguments to the bait.py command. In this case, a variable command in the input script is ignored if the variable was already set in the command line. This allows an input script to set default values for variables that can be overridden by command-line settings.


There is one variable that must be set when using the ZMQ backend to bait.py. Its ID is "hostnames" and it should be set to the list of hostnames on which to launch the PHISH job. If you are running on a large parallel machine, it is typically the names of the nodes assigned to your job by the batch allocator. If you are running on your desktop, it can be just the hostname of your machine. E.g.

variable hostnames node3 node4 node10
variable hostnames mybox
variable hostnames mybox otherbox.localnet.gov 

This variable is used by the ZMQ backend to determine what host to launch each minnow on. See the bind option of the bait.py school command for further discussion on how to assign specific minnows to specific hosts.

Restrictions: none

Related commands:

Any variable can be set either in a PHISH input script or via the --variable or -v command-line arguments of the bait.py tool.

Default: none